Growth Mindset in Your Syllabus:This exercise is intended for you to consider what your syllabus is communicating.

Fixed Mindset / Did You Know: / Growth Mindset
The belief that intelligence and talents are fixed. Accepting as true that some people are born really smart and others are less smart. They may believe some people are born with abilities including: artistic, musical, mathematical, organizational, athletic, etc. People who think this way and find it difficult to draw, solve math problems, or write well may assume they are not artistic, not a math person, or not a good writer. / Research, including new neuroscience studies of the brain, shows that this thinking is incorrect. People are able to develop their skills and grow their abilities. / When students and educators have a growth mindset they understand that intelligence and skills can be developed in much the same way a muscle grows stronger and larger over time with exercise.
With enough practice, anyone can draw, do math, write, etc. Students can learn if they focus on improvement and make the effort instead of being concerned with how smart or talented they are. With effort and time, our abilities can be grown.
Directions:
Please highlight where your syllabus fosters a growth mindset and other areas of your syllabus that might be better worded to encourage a growth mindset:

Area:Questions: Examples/Changes:

Office Hours /
  • How do you encourage attendance?
  • Where do you explain their purpose and what happens there?

Course Description /
  • How does the description invite students into something they can accomplish?
  • Where does it indicate what students will be able to achieveby the end of the class?
  • How does it make the subject relevant and/or useful in students’ lives?

Grade Scale /
  • Where does it indicate that it is still possible for students to earn an A even well into the semester?
  • How does the scale provide students theopportunity to recuperate from mistakes?

Assignments /
  • Do the assignments help students practice your subject and develop the skills they need to engage the material and the field?
  • Do you include engaging approaches like Service Learning/hands-on applications, use of innovative technology, teamwork, etc.?

Resources /
  • Where do you share relevant campus resources?
  • Where do you explain to students why use of resources is valuable and beneficial?

SLOs / Are your course SLOs, as housed in the COR and displayed on your syllabus:
  • written in a way that students can understand what it is they should be able to do by the end of the course?
  • written in a way that helps students understand that they will be able to do something that is personally meaningful and of which they will be proud?

Hidden Curriculum /
  • Do you illustrate what a successful student in your class does?
  • Do you spell out your expectations?

Other

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